Islanders host fast-paced Lamar

CORPUS CHRISTI - The Southland Conference unbeatens have dwindled to only two men’s basketball teams, and the pace will be picking up in more than one way for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Islanders face up-tempo Lamar at 7, tonight in the American Bank Center, so there likely will be a faster-paced game. And the Lamar contest kicks off A&M-Corpus Christi’s most frantic stretch during the first half of the league schedule.

Right after Lamar (10-8, 2-1) comes UTSA, which is 2-1 in the conference. The week after is the other unbeaten — 2-0 Sam Houston. The following week features UT Arlington, the team that dropped UTSA, and 2-1 Nicholls, which again looks like a top team in the East Division.

Yet the timing seems right. The Islanders (8-8, 3-0) are playing their best ball right now, learning from a non-conference schedule that was demanding in December and January.

“In the non-conference games, we played them tough but we didn’t have it at the end,” A&M-Corpus Christi forward Demond Watt said. “Now, we’re playing them tough and keeping it up at the end. We’re pulling it out at the end and putting teams away. We have to keep up the momentum.”

Lamar is an interesting team, one that has not won a road game in seven tries this season and is without guard Ashton Hall, a starter last season who was lost for the year after electing surgery on a torn ACL. Islanders coach Perry Clark said the Cardinals still run a fast-paced offense, yet Lamar is seventh in the league in scoring at 69.9 points a game and has scored in the 80s only twice this season.

Still, Clark believes the key is to keep the Cardinals to a trot instead of a sprint.

“I think this will be the best offensive team we’ll face in the league,” Clark said. “They run good stuff, they fast-break and have a scorer at every position. They’re very quick, and their big guys are explosive. The biggest thing is to find a way to keep them out of transition, so we have to limit turnovers.”

Freshman point guard Terence Jones will play a key role in limiting mistakes. Jones will face Anthony Miles, Lamar’s leading scorer and a potent rebounder and 3-point shooter. Miles also leads the team in steals, something that will challenge Jones, who has had turnover issues.

“This will be a good test for Terence because this guard he’s playing against is explosive offensively,” Clark said. “Most of the guards he’s faced have been set-up guys. This guy scores and rebounds.”